Friday, 1 March 2019

FIVE more minors – aged between five and seven – have
opened up on sexual abuse experiences they encountered at the hands of a
61-year-old Chipinge man who was recently arrested after a five-year old boy
reported the alleged abuse to his parents.

However, the wheels of justice are moving at a slow pace
because the children’s parents and guardians are reluctant to take the matter
to the police.

Simon Madhoyo was arrested last week on allegations of
sodomising a five-year old neighbour’s son. He appeared at the Chipinge courts
and was remanded in custody to today (Friday).

Madhoyo, who runs a small grocery shop in Mwacheta, was
charged with aggravated indecent assault.

As word spread that more children could have been abused by
the suspect, the Manica Post tracked down five minors in Bare Village to
uncover the crimes allegedly perpetrated against them.

The case was the talk of the community and villagers aired
their views.

Mr Albert Madhoyo, a community development committee
chairperson who is a cousin to the alleged perpetrator, said the other children
started opening up about their sexual abuse experiences after one of the
victims had reported the matter to his parents.

He said two of the five minors who were allegedly abused by
61-year old Madhoyo were his own grandsons.

“The way I see it is that the parents and guardians of
these other five minors are so poor that they can hardly afford the bus fares
to travel to the nearest police station.

“There is also an element of fear. We have a police base
nearby, but the officers at the base normally request the complainant to find
transport to ferry officers to and from the base or bring the accused.

“Most of the villagers here cannot afford that. The other factor is that even if they report at the
nearest base, most of them do not have funds to meet travelling costs to
witness the whole process until the finalisation of the trial.

“This is painful. I deal with ECD pupils and vividly recall
that on the day the other minor was abused he did not attend school. These
children have been traumatised.

“Some are being ridiculed during playtime. In fact, that is
how the other five ended opening up after being ridiculed that they had also
been sodomised.

“I think if this matter is to be thoroughly investigated
the number of abused children might be more than six,” he said.

A six –year-old boy who also opened up to the abuse said:
“I went to fetch water at a nearby borehole. He called and asked me to get
inside his house. He removed my pants and sodomised me. It was painful.

“He gave me peanuts and told me never to tell anyone. He
said he would beat me up if I ever told anyone”.

A parent of one of the abused boys said her child disclosed
the abuse following the police report.

“I heard that my child was one of those that were abused.
It surfaced as children were ridiculing each other about being sodomised.

“We then sat down with him and talked to him nicely. That
is when he divulged everything, giving the graphic detail of how it happened,”
she said.

Another parent said she returned from South Africa after
having been told about her son’s abuse.

“I returned from South Africa after learning that my son
had been abused. It happened while I was away and I reported the case to the
police a fortnight ago.

“We were told to come and sleep at the police base so that
we would go to Chipinge the next morning.

“This did not materialise because there were some
inexplicable excuses that were made at the police that I did not understand at
all.

“I had to use my own money to go to Chipinge where some
tests were done at hospital and conclude that they found nothing wrong,” she
said. Manica Post